What Made EQ Great? Tell your stories to a filthy casual

What made EQ great for me was being behind the curve. I was never someone who found out some shit by rolling around with a top dog guild. Rather I discovered things by word of mouth or just going along with what my guild had planned for the night. I did get my shit strewn all over the place in the caves of Everfrost by the Lich of Miragul a couple of times but just the adventure of getting away from what I was used to and returning many levels later to conquer the content that kicked my ass was pretty awesome. The thing about that though is that I didn't have time to do that to every place that I went and had a terrible experience so my interest stayed peaked. Raiding with 40+ people on a 56k connection on a Gateway computer with no tower, all the shit build into the monitor, and knowing that my aunt could call my mom and fuck up my night at any minute kept me on the edge of my shit. It was a different time, but even now playing EMU's, the game still dominates in certains arenas of MMORPGs for me. The difficulty if you can even call it that was just completely different. If it difficulty isn't what can describe the game its the time that you actually have to spend to accomplish something notable. That's whats missing today. A collective effort on the PVE side to accomplish something notable. I have much more respect for those that played on PVP servers and did the same thing. But just the amount of time you have to put in on a PVE server was crazy. Hell its still crazy even in the EMU environments.

Someone depriving me of food for 3 days then they gave me a piece of bread it was the tastiest piece of bread ever created on this earth. Swear.

CalhoonJugganaut_sl said:

What made EQ great for me was being behind the curve. I was never someone who found out some shit by rolling around with a top dog guild. Rather I discovered things by word of mouth or just going along with what my guild had planned for the night. I did get my shit strewn all over the place in the caves of Everfrost by the Lich of Miragul a couple of times but just the adventure of getting away from what I was used to and returning many levels later to conquer the content that kicked my ass was pretty awesome. The thing about that though is that I didn't have time to do that to every place that I went and had a terrible experience so my interest stayed peaked. Raiding with 40+ people on a 56k connection on a Gateway computer with no tower, all the shit build into the monitor, andknowing that my aunt could call my mom and fuck up my night at any minute kept me on the edge of my shit. It was a different time, but even now playing EMU's, the game still dominates in certains arenas of MMORPGs for me. The difficulty if you can even call it that was just completely different. If it difficulty isn't what can describe the game its the time that you actually have to spend to accomplish something notable. That's whats missing today. A collective effort on the PVE side to accomplish something notable. I have much more respect for those that played on PVP servers and did the same thing. But just the amount of time you have to put in on a PVE server was crazy. Hell its still crazy even in the EMU environments.

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lol ahh the good old days of connecting dialup. I begged my parents for years for my own phone line for just this reason and like 2 years later I was like THATS ALL I WANT FOR MY BIRTHDAY CHRISTMAS FOR THE NEXT 10 YEARS you don't have to get me anything! And they did it, I was in heaven.

Frenzied Wombat_sl said:

AoE groups. 2 wizzies (or a mage in a pinch), an enchanter, a cleric, a bard/monk, and a HUGE ass train.

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That was slow mode. Try 4 wizards and 2 enchanters(spamming AoE stun) Shit we cleared like a 4th of Old Sebilis a pull.

Getting married in-game only to find out it was a mangina milking me for platz. Even had GM Solist change our last names so they matched.

Hey, I was young, gullible, and stupid back then...

Without a doubt, taking advantage of the Beastlord's leveling spell when the class was first released. Every now and then Sony would put in a mechanic that was abusable , and for me it was the Beastlord mechanic that I had so much fun with.

It was about 3 to 4 weeks after the release of the Beastlord and I had hit 60th. My wife was playing with me and happened to be clearing junk out of her bank. She asked me if there was any purpose to the item that had 3 charges of "Control Animal" on it. I had just about told her to throw it away when a thought crossed my mind. I knew that enchanters could charm mobs , and while charmed, have spells placed on them that made them more powerful. Could I charm a creature and actually use my "Leveling" spell on it? Yes, indeed I could.

The fun I had leveling the Puma's in Oasis, giving them a breath attack, casting SoW along with all the Shaman buffs and having my Wife's druid throw on a damage shield on them was awesome. People would suddenly remark about how there was this Puma kicking everyone's ass at the zone line. Suddenly I became a GM running an event where everyone in the zone was trying to find this Elite super puma. I watched as this thing took down groups of 16th-25th level players. The best part was when a high leveled player finally beat it and of course everyone in the zone wanted to know what it had for loot. "What the hell, all it has is a ruined pelt and some meat". I literally spit out my beer and laughed for a good 30 seconds at that comment.

I payed 500 plat for usable puppet strings which allowed me a chance to control any mob. The fun I had in Crushbone....

Of course the mechanic got changed, but that was one of the reasons I loved EQ so much. It had many opportunities to take advantage of how the game was written.

Here is my list in no particular order. I still go back every now and then and check out EQ.

Rolling a half elf paladin and falling off Kelethin that first day due to lag.
Attacking the Priest of Discord because I didn't know any better.
Crushbone trains handing me my ass.
Having a GM teleport me to a roof in Neriak (with said paladin) to flirt with me because she(him? it?) thought I was funny when resolving an issue.
Remember when they nerfed global duel announcements because "Hitler has defeated Thejews in single combat!" (I remember the Hitler defeating Thejews part).
Getting into top tier raiding on The Nameless.
Being part of beating the world first Avatar of War.
Drama from people saying we cheated to beat said Avatar of War.
Nerf on Binding in Kael, Pet aggro, etc.
Getting my Soulfire, Firey Avenger, and Fiery Defender.
Rolling an erudite wizard and managing to get to 46 with the name "System Administrator" before SoE caught it.
Old items retain some value.
The community.
Giving up on Planes of Power.

JTheRuler_sl said:

Yeah the first couple of years they definitely were. Seemed to die off late Kunark though. But that reminds me of one time I had a group going with my Troll guild camping the croc in Guk and a GM snuck in invis and took off all of our pants. I remember one guy saying I think I'm bugged cause I dont see anyones pants, and then everyone else realizing they actually didn't have any. Then the GM shouted caught you with your pants down or something silly. His name was Crazeco which i guess was fitting. He BSed with us for a bit then left. Which I still had those screen shots.

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This reminds me of the time we were raiding Trakannon. I had swapped my Deepwater Greaves for my poison resist pants, we had wiped and when I rezzed I somehow missed putting my pants on. After we beat Trak, one of my guildies asked where my pants went. Oops. I was asked (read: mocked) evey raid for months if I remembered my pants.

One guildy created a guild called <Drop Your Pants> and messaged me bumming plat.

Yrah EQ was fun lol.

Twelve Prophets getting disbanded on Vallon Zek for corpse camping an entire guild in the Plane of Fear

The sense of exploration and the unknown during original EQ that lead to a constant sense of danger and wonder.

No random gear, no random stats, no world drops. All the gear was unique.

It all had a place and a purpose. The mob who was the King drop a crown as his loot. The mob who was a shady assassin dropped a Rogue dagger. The rotten skeleton knight down at the bottom of the well dropped his corrupted bastard sword. Every piece of gear had lore and somewhat of a story behind it.

Fight_sl said:

No random gear, no random stats, no world drops. All the gear was unique.

It all had a place and a purpose. The mob who was the King drop a crown as his loot. The mob who was a shady assassin dropped a Rogue dagger. The rotten skeleton knight down at the bottom of the well dropped his corrupted bastard sword. Every piece of gear had lore and somewhat of a story behind it.

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This is one of my concerns with EQN, not just with loot but the whole concept of procedurally generated content in general. Yeah it can lead to high diversity but it's hard to make it actually mean something.

GMs used to do a ton of fun shit. Massive events in Dreadlands, the Halfling jump in Rivervale, being dicks and running around as Mistmoore.

One came to PoTime with us and made us all different animals. I was a rabbit.

Poin Dexter_sl said:

Being part of beating the world first Avatar of War.

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Crimson Tempest!

I guess many of the same reasons everyone else is posting. New experience plus it was fucking hard. Maybe unforgiving is a better word. That element of fear generated by original EQ has pretty much been absent in every mmo I've played since (Eve Online is supposed to be like this, and I do try to get into it occasionally but I just can't stick). As much as people bitch about 6 hour plane of fear corpse recoveries, losing levels and all that bullshit, the fear and frustration responses in your brain to all that probably help to cement our EQ memories vividly.

I also met my better half in EQ, no chance we would've crossed paths in real life, her in Brooklyn and me in New Orleans. EQ changed my path through life in a huge, permanent way.

Also, being on LoS' server turned out to be pretty cool for my WoW experience. Many of WoW's npcs are named after LoS guild members and other personalities from the Nameless server. I feel like I'm in on some inside joke when I see General Arlos, Archmage Tenaj, Guard Berton, Protector Dorana, and others I can't remember offhand. A guy I was guilded with, Beardo (the Donald Trump of EC on nameless), is now a goblin auctioneer in Gadgetzan.

=

No game has handle Races, race/class restrictions, home towns, and factions as well as EQ did.

You couldn't be an Ogre Wizard, because Ogre's are fucking retarded and do not have the mental capacity for it. You couldn't be a Dark Elf Shaman, because the race has no history or traditional of the mystical arts. Verant didn't give a fuck that little Timmy was screaming and crying on the message boards that it was his RIGHT to be a High Elf Shadow Knight because he bought the game and the customer is always right!! Lore matters.

Every race had it's own unique home town, well almost. Half Evles sorta kinda had Qeynos and Jagged Pine... but you get the point. These towns were some of the most impressive zones in the game. They felt like living and breathing cities, with different neighborhoods. Rich areas, slums, sewer systems, commerce districts, banks full of guards, and the different guild halls with their perspective trainers and masters. It gave you a place, that felt like home. It was always felt good to return to your old stomping grounds after a long day of adventuring.

The music was truly great. The moment you stepped outside of Ak'Anon into Steamfont Mountains, you knew you were in for an epic adventure.

All the old EQ music was amazeballs. Greater Faydark, dark as shit, literally no idea what the FUCK is going on, trying to use a PB AoE but I'm 9 years old and have no idea wtf that even means, and I keep dying to these damn wisps. Somehow make my way to Kelethin, find myself in a Crushbone group, looting stupid fucking belts that you can turn in (wow!). Get to Emperor's room and everyone just dies cause there's like 6 orcs in there and they all kick your ass if you enter through the middle of the room, with that one fucking shaman orc healing all of them.

Corpses. Everywhere.